3 former 5-Star Texas recruits that have yet to live up to the hype

Alfred Collins, DE

Among the most talented players along the defensive front for the Longhorns in 2022 is the former five-star recruit and rising sophomore defensive end/defensive lineman Alfred Collins. While Texas definitely didn’t get the most out of Collins last season, he still should be one of the presumed starters along the defensive front in 2022.

Texas has a lot of talent along the defensive front this year, they just need to make good use of it. And getting the most out of someone like the freakishly athletic 6-foot-5 and 300-pound defensive end Collins would go a long way to making that happen this fall.

Collins went from being one of the most promising freshmen defensive linemen in the Big 12 in 2020 to having a bit of a letdown during his sophomore campaign last fall. He was one of the lowest graded defensive linemen for the Longhorns last season en route to registering just a couple of sacks and five tackles for loss.

It didn’t help that three of the more inconsistent performances we saw from Collins last season came in three of the last four games of the season. He had three games in a row in the latter stretch of Big 12 play last season where he missed at least one tackle in each and ranked in the bottom 10th percentile among starting defensive linemen in this conference in defensive grade.

Those are obviously not trends you want to see Collins keep up in 2022. He’s just too talented and gifted to not make positive contributions to this defensive front early this coming season.

Defensive line coach Bo Davis and defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski need to hit the reset button with how they use Collins this year, which is a process that largely begins with how they line him up in spring camp.